Novel Gels for Food Product Development

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Gels under the heading “Novel Gels for Food Product Development” is dedicated to providing a comprehensive collection of recent advances in the field of food gels. Gels, being a semi-solid colloidal or polymer network, have various applications in food. Their properties and the various possibilities and options for their usage depend on the interactions between their components, mechanisms or conditions of gelation. The properties of gels can also be modified by polymer concentration, temperature, pH or iconic strength. The fact that many factors influence the characteristics of gels in food systems makes it possible to adapt their properties to the type of food product. The recent researches on food gels focus on the application of natural plant-origin polysaccharides or proteins as polymer components, the investigation of the gel formation mechanism, their properties and stability. New analytical methods are also being developed to study gels in food systems. By the act of creating new food products, producers are attempting to fulfill consumers’ requests and requirements. Thanks to their ability to immobilize large amounts of water, their low calorie density, appealing taste, and society-enhancing properties, gels are good materials for novel, functional food production. They can be some of the most in-demand low calorie, pro-healthy, sustainable and zero-waste foods. Therefore, in the field of new product development, gels can play the following important roles: they are novel, biocompatible, biodegradable edible encapsulation materials, delivery agents for bioactive compounds, products that control digestive or retention properties and are even substrates for 3D printing. Edible gels also have a potential application in smart packaging, including biosensor-based packaging.

This Special Issue aims to present the research on the recent advances in novel food gels created by using novel ingredients and innovative methods of gel induction, as well as new methods for analyzing the properties of gels or products made with food gels.

Dr. Anna Florowska
Dr. Tomasz Florowski
Prof. Dr. Osvaldo H. Campanella
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.